2012 was a great first year for Sheltered Life PR and one that saw us helping some truly impressive new acts get their feet, fists and heavily made-up’d faces through many doors. In fact when we initially came up with the idea of forming SLPR the only thing we really knew was that the one band we wanted to help was Cardiff’s very own “Heavy Rock Spectacular” The Witches Drum. So this month – with a mother’s pride and a father’s appreciation for forgotten psychedelic records – we are pleased to say that we helped the band get their song ‘Climb Aboard The Bus Of Devotion’ on the brand new Metal Hammer covermount compilation, Satanic Doomadalica Vol. 1. Well deserved and long overdue, we couldn’t be happier for the guys.

After a storming 2012 Toundra look set to build upon the acclaim they gathered for their album (III) with two festival appearances one of which includes a return to Primavera Sound this May. Fans of Spain’s finest instrumental post-rock group will be able to catch the band on Thursday 23 June in what promises to be an unforgettable week. As well featuring on the Primavera line-up the band also play FIB Benicàssim Festival taking place from 18-21 July and of course, Aloud Music Ltd’s inaugural Aloud Music Festival 2013 this February (more info here).

To celebrate the release of Spider Kitten’s latest opus Cougar Club you can watch the first video taken from the album exclusively over at Terrorizer.com (here). To view more work by the filmmakers behind the video – Ioan Thomas of Shrunkenhead and Mei Lewis of Mission Photographic – check out their website at www.ioanthomas.wordpress.com. You can also catch Spider Kitten performing Cougar Club live at two very special shows this week with Gouranga before the band enter into the studio again to record a follow up, pencilled in for released later this summer.

Chris Hitchman first came to our attention back in July when he was commissioned by Levitation Records to produce artwork for the new Witches Drum EP Future Kings Of An Empty Throne. Chris had already produced some posters and album covers for local acts in the area (Culver, Zinc Bukowski) and had recently scored some work for the legendary band KARP on merchandise for their indispensable 2011 documentary Kill All Redneck Pricks: A Documentary Film About A Band Called KARP (www.karplives.com). Off the back of his hard work and exceptional talent he was approached by the management team behind the US rock band Monster Magnet to produce a limited edition screen print for the Manchester date on their twentieth anniversary tour for their Spine of God album, and needed some help making it happen.

We stepped in to help Chris promote his work and arrange a schedule, effectively serving as a go-between to enable him time to finish his design and get paid for his efforts. Liaising with Jens Bornhoft, tour manager at Monster Magnet and Nigel Bowles at The Printhaus Workshops, Cardiff (www.theprinthaus.org) we helped Chris secure the commission and from the spec provided devised an affordable and effective way to print his original design in good time. The good folk at The Printhaus did a spectacular job in turning around 125 of these original A2 screen printed posters on black stock, hand signed and numbered by Chris…

With an order for 100 met we decided that instead of simply posting the prints we would take Chris to Manchester to deliver them in person. With all access passes to the show (thanks Jens!) we met with the team and band at the Manchester Academy where Chris’s work was quite rightly met with a lot of love, and his fantastic poster was sold on the merchandise stall alongside work by Malleus, and purchased by many fans and collectors…

A great experience for us personally and a memorable one for all involved we were massively proud to have helped him get his first set of prints produced and build what will no doubt be a long and fruitful working friendship with the guys at Monster Magnet and hopefully set Chris up with even more commissions. With 25 posters to sell after the show we set up and designed an online Big Cartel store for Chris to sell his poster, giving him an online presence and outlet to sell more work of his work in the future. And with bookings already made for 2013, and more work with even more legendary bands and artists just around the corner this year really is going to be a big one for Chris Hitchman. We look forward to working him again soon and in the meantime you can purchase one of these prints via his new online shop, http://www.chrishitchmanart.bigcartel.com. Snap one up before they go. If they haven’t all gone already.